City police on Friday raided two houses in Depok, West Java, where
ecstasy pills were allegedly being manufactured. A police official said
that five suspected drug dealers were arrested.

One of the houses was located in a housing complex for the police’s
elite Mobile Brigade, while the other was in a complex for members of the
Army’s elite Special Forces, or Kopassus.

The chief of the Jakarta Police Narcotics Directorate, Arman Depari,
told the press on Friday that a lab was set up in a rented home in the
Mobile Brigade complex in Kelapa Dua, Depok. From there, thousands of
ecstasy pills were transported to the house in the Kopassus complex on
Jalan Camar, also in Kelapa Dua.

“We found 10 tons of ecstasy ingredients,” he said.

The lab was set up in a two-story house, which also had a three-story
storehouse equipped with a bunker containing chemical supplies, drums,
jerry cans, and trays for pills.

The house had five rooms outfitted with closed-circuit television and a
camera placed out front to monitor anyone entering or leaving.

The officers also found 19 drums containing chemicals including
methanol, acetone and ammonia.

Arman said that the lab was capable of synthesizing batches containing
100 kilograms of the active ingredient of ecstasy. Each kilogram can be
made into 5,000 pills, so a single round of production would yield 500,000
doses.

The police arrested five suspects in the raid, including Andreas Sonpi
Rotty, who was believed to be the owner.

Erizal, head of the neighborhood, said that the cream-colored house
actually belonged to Andreas’s brother-in-law, Enrico. Andreas began
occupying the newly constructed house about a month ago.

Erizal also said that local residents had been suspicious because the
house, with its high perimeter fences, more closely resembled a warehouse
than a place of residence. Moreover, he said, the owner of the house had
never interacted with his neighbors.

“We saw vehicles coming in and out of the house, even at night,” he
said.

Erizal’s suspicion was confirmed when Andreas failed to produce a KK,
or family card that lists the members of a family living in a particular
house.

Andreas only submitted a copy of his identity card, or KTP.

The house had been surrounded by a police perimeter, and officers were
on the scene.

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The Jakarta Globe May 2, 2009

Prosecutors Implicated in Drug Case Controversy

by Heru Andriyanto

Two district prosecutors in the West Jakarta office breached internal
procedures in the prosecution of a drug case that ended with the defendant
being sentenced to only a year in jail following a controversial trial, a
senior official said on Friday.

Prosecutor Sultoni, who brought the case to the West Jakarta District
Court, and Suparno, the head of the prosecution team, failed to report to
their office head before preparing the indictment, said Hamzah Tadja, the
deputy attorney general for internal supervision.

“They reported to the head of the West Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office
only after the trial was concluded,” he told reporters.

In addition, Sultoni and Suparno recommended only a one and a half year
sentence for the defendant — Gunawan Tjahjadi — despite the
seriousness of his crime.

“I have recommended sanctions for the two. The attorney general [Hendarman
Supandji] will decide,” Hamzah said without elaborating.

Abdul Hakim Riotnga, another deputy for general crimes, said earlier
that drug trafficking was considered a serious offense and the Attorney
General’s Office had to sign off on sentencing requests in drug
trafficking cases.

However, the controversy did not end there. The trial verdict was
handed down only one day after the trial began, extremely quick by
Indonesian standards.

And after Gunawan was sentenced on Feb. 18, the convict escaped from
Sultoni and Suparno’s custody. He was rearrested last month and
immediately sent to prison in Tangerang.

Jakarta Police have denied any misconduct, saying they handed over
Gunawan, his documents and all the evidence in the case to Sultoni before
the trial began, and have a signed receipt from the prosecutor.